Automation can be our friend, but we must not let it turn into a foe

The growth of mechanisation brings many benefits, yet vigilance is needed to keep it in check

What the economic historian Aaron Benanav calls the automation discourse" has been going ever since the luddites smashed textile machinery in Nottingham in 1811.

At issue is whether machines destroy or create jobs. The first case is easiest to understand. Machines are labour-saving; and labour saved means labour unemployed. Fear of unemployment has always been the dominant response of the workforce to the introduction of machinery.